Eric and Sandy Lertzman were living a charmed life in Northridge, California. Well, it was charmed to everyone looking on. Eric had a successful career as a Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney. He and his wife Sandy had raised their two children Michael and Rachel and they were all living a quiet life in suburbia.
On Wednesday September 11, 2019. Something happened. Something terrible. Eric shot and killed his wife Sandy while she was in their bedroom. He then walked across the hall and attempted to shoot and kill Rachel. Rachel locked herself into a bathroom and managed to escape through a window.
After failing to kill Rachel, Eric fatally shot Michael, before returning to the master bedroom where he took his own life.
Rachel ran to a neighbor’s house for help. Greg Demo told KTLA that the she was “upset, confused, distraught, somewhat in shock” and even a “little bit embarrassed” as she told him, “My dad took a shot at me, and my mom and my brother are still inside.'”
What went so wrong? Sandy Lertzman shared selfies with her husband on Facebook, filling her page with pictures of family members. She said that they had been married for 30 years.
It has been reported that Eric had recently had surgery and was on disability from his job. There are rumors that he had been struggling with pain management. Eric’s sister-in-law, Cindy Stern told the Daily News that Eric was about to have a hernia medication. “This is a tragedy. This is a case of somebody snapping. He was in pain and on pain medication. It’s so out of character for him,” Stern said to the newspaper. “He was a mild-mannered man.”
Eric’s mother Phyllis had also recently passed away – around two weeks before the murder/suicide took place.
You can view the Medical Examiner reports for the Lertzman family here –